Black Smoke from Vatican Means No Decision on Pope

Black Smoke from Vatican Means No Decision on Pope

March 12, 2013Updated Mar 12, 2013 at 4:57 PM EDT

(CBS News) The 115 Catholic cardinals tasked with choosing the ancient Roman church's new leader signaled Tuesday evening with a puff of black smoke that they will need at least another day to decide on the right man for the job.

Hours after they isolated themselves in one of the world's most iconic chapels for the first day of the papal conclave -- the ritualistic voting process that will eventually see them elect the next supreme pontiff if the Catholic Church, they burned their first set of voting ballots, sending the smoke up into the air over the Sistine Chapel for hundreds of people gathered in St. Peter's Square to see. Had the smoke been white, it would have meant a pope had been elected.